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Modern fruit trees are made possible through the art of grafting. By attaching sturdy roots to a tree with tasty fruits, horticulturalists have created fruit trees that are more productive and have a higher resistance to disease than trees growing on their own roots. Sometimes, it's helpful to graft other fruit trees onto the main tree for help with pollination or to extend the growing season and these trees are commonly known as fruit salad trees.

Fruit Salad Trees

Fruit salad trees are the answer to a gardener's problem of too many fruit varieties and not enough space to plant them. On a single rootstock, a gardener can grow a virtually unlimited number of varieties of compatible fruits, although five or six is often the realistic limit. These grafted wonders are a boon to small yards, creating an orchard in the space a single tree would normally occupy.

Compatible Grafts

The trick to fruit salad trees is grafting compatible trees together. Most often, only closely related varieties in the same genus can be grafted together. You can graft apples to an apple rootstock, graft plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots and almonds to peach rootstocks, or multiple types of pears to pear rootstocks. Most types of citrus will graft together reasonably well, since they are closely related. Incompatible grafts may initially show some growth, but the grafted section soon dies.

Making Multiple Grafts

Multiple grafts are stressful to a tree, so gardeners often perform budding grafts to create fruit salad trees. With a budding graft, only a small incision is made in the bark of the recipient tree and a single bud is placed inside before being bound tightly in place. This operation can be repeated many times with very little stress to the rootstock. Budding is a quick process and each limb will mature at about the same time since they were all grafted in the same season.

Fruit Salad Tree Care

Fruit salad trees, like other grafted trees, need extra care while the grafts are healing and through the first season. About a month after bud grafting the new limb buds to the rootstock, remove the bands holding the buds in place to prevent them from girdling. Keep the rootstock well watered and give it a shot of fertilizer to help speed up recovery. You should resist trimming your fruit salad tree until the first dormant season.

About the Author

Kristi Waterworth started her writing career in 1995 as a journalist for a local newspaper. From there, her meandering career path led to a 9 1/2 year stint in the real estate industry. Since 2010, she's written on a wide range of personal finance topics. Waterworth received a Bachelor of Arts in American history from Columbia College.